Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 102901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Raphael licked his lips as his cock grew hard in his jeans. Father Murray’s eyes had met his, never moving away as Raphael had drained him of life. Raphael sighed as he recalled the priest’s slowing pulse, his blue face . . . and his severed dick, his blood gushing onto the floor. Raphael’s jeans were still stained with the blood. He wouldn’t wash them. He would frame them and hang them on his wall in his room so he would be forever reminded of the cunt he had killed.
Raphael heard the door to his room open. Michael walked in, still covered in blood. His hands were stained; Raphael knew his brother wouldn’t be washing them anytime soon. Silently, Michael walked into the room and sat on the chair next to the bed. His best friend smiled, his fangs still coated in his victims’ blood. He would have gorged on his new collection as soon as they returned home. Michael’s eyes were dilated from the adrenaline of the kills they had all made. Raphael knew his would be the same.
Raphael settled into the pillow again. Michael took out a vial of blood from his pocket and, dipping his finger into the open top, began to suck on the blood. “She going to live?” Michael asked.
Raphael met his brother’s watching eyes. “The doctor said so. But she’ll take weeks to heal.”
Michael nodded, then went back to his blood. The door opened again. Sela and Diel walked through. Wordlessly, they moved to the couch against the wall and sat down. Sela rested his head against the backrest. “I’m beat.”
Diel’s hands twitched on his knees. His eyes closed, and Raphael saw him taking deep breaths. It took his brother hours to calm down after a spree. Too much energy in his veins. It was a high they all struggled to come back from—Diel most of all.
Twenty minutes later, Bara and Uriel walked in the room. Bara cocked an eyebrow at everyone present. “Seems like we’re late to the party.” Bara and Uriel pulled chairs from the dining area to beside the bed, on the opposite side to Michael. Bara watched Raphael hold Maria with a smirk on his face. Raphael curled further into Maria’s warm body.
“You calm now?” Uriel asked.
Raphael nodded his head. Not one of his brothers had showered. All covered in the blood and guts of the priests. Bara opened his mouth to say something, when the door opened one final time. Gabriel paused when he saw his brothers. His blond hair was wet, and he was back in his black clothes and white dog collar.
Gabriel moved a chair beside Michael. His blue eyes tracked over Maria, checking she was okay. “You need anything, Raphe?”
“No,” he replied.
Gabriel sighed as he slouched into his chair. He winced as he sat. Then his hand ran down his face.
“So, Purgatory’s done,” Sela said from the couch.
Raphael and his brothers looked one another in the eyes. He felt something in his stomach relax. A pain he never knew he carried until that moment.
“Burned to the ground,” Michael said, then, frowning, looked to Gabriel. Gabriel’s face was pale and his eyes rimmed with red. Raphael didn’t understand why. “All that wasted blood.”
Bara sighed, then leaned forward on his chair. His eyes narrowed on his brothers. “So this is codependency.”
Raphael wondered what that was. Uriel, Sela, Diel, and Michael looked just as confused as he felt.
“What’s that?” Michael asked.
Bara shrugged. “No fucking idea. Heard Miller talking about it before. Said we all suffered from codependency.” He grinned. “Sounded fancy. Just wanted a chance to say the words aloud.”
“It doesn’t matter what it means,” Gabriel said, pulling their attention. “He never lived what we lived through.” Gabriel smiled. It was the first authentic smile Raphael had seen him give in years. “We’re brothers. We have each other’s backs.” Gabriel pointed at Maria. “And the back of anyone we take into our fold.”
Raphael looked at Maria sleeping beside him. She was so beautiful. He wanted her to wake up and speak to him. He liked her voice. He didn’t like that he wasn’t hearing it in his rooms. He wanted to feel her hand on his cheek. He’d once punished her for touching his cheek without permission. Now he would order it if she would just wake up.
Sela got up from his seat and lit the fire. The room filled with warmth, the sound of crackling wood and the smoky scent of burning logs. Raphael stared at Maria. When he looked up at his brothers, they were asleep. Raphael’s eyes grew heavy, and laying his head on Maria’s long hair, he fell asleep too.
*****
It took a week before Maria was roused from the sedation. Raphael held her hand as the doctor took her from the IV that kept her under and waited for her to wake. Her finger twitched first. Her lips moved, then her eyelids began to flutter.